Tuesday, March 12, 2013

World's hottest pepper, anyone?

For those who like hot peppers, the Trinidad Scorpion, Butch T Strain, is the Mt. Everest. It knocked off the Ghost Pepper a couple years back as the worlds hottest. The seeds aren't cheap but I sprang for 20 of them this winter and now they are in the process of germinating. Cross your fingers, pepper lovers! Here's what one Website (www.scovillescaleforpeppers.com) had to say about them:

Trinidad Scorpion Butch T

In June 2011, the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T Pepper beat out its competition from India and Southern England as the hottest pepper in the World. It was made official in the Guinness Book of World Records, measuring a whopping 1,463,700 SHU (SHU = scoville heat units). SHU measure the amount of Capsaicin present in a food. For the purposes of comparison, a typical Habenero pepper has a rating of 100,000-350,000 SHU and a Jalapeno pepper is rated at 3,500-8,000. That makes the Butch T a very HOT pepper!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to eat any of these or even throw them in a pot-roast! We will see how many germinate, then try to harvest a few in early fall. The Butch T will be one of many varieties of peppers we'll grow this year. On the sweeter side will be the Aji Dulce de Panama, a great one for making sofrito. And of course there will be some bells, pepperoncinis and quite a few others. It could be a hot summer!